


keep running (the stay away/stray away remix)

by defractum (nyargles)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-27 21:45:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15033965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyargles/pseuds/defractum
Summary: Andrew hunts magic users, and Nathaniel has the largest price of all on his head.A magic AU, feat. Andreil's first meeting





	keep running (the stay away/stray away remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dancyon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dancyon/gifts).
  * Inspired by [How to take in strays](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10982922) by [Dancyon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dancyon/pseuds/Dancyon). 



> Dear Dancyon, I really hope you like this. Your worldbuilding gave me so much to work from in the original, and I had a lot of fun remixing this!

Andrew Minyard has killed hundreds of people now, and he doesn't have the luxury of forgetting exactly how many.

Maybe one day, one of them will kill him first.

This is the thought that sneaks into Andrew's head every time he prepares for a new mission, a new kill. It rises, unbidden, and these days, he tries to ignore it. Sometimes he even succeeds.

He takes the most dangerous missions he can find. It makes him angry - an irrational anger, he knows - when the witches cry instead, and beg him to let them go, or just stare up at him without even attempting to use their magic against him.

The ones who do fight, they're never strong enough. Only one has managed to even injure him so far - a spell that made him leap out of the way and land awkwardly. He'd had to use a cane for a few months after that, both to recuperate the use of his knee and because, as it turns out, people never wonder if there's a sword stashed inside the cane and he's used it to get the drop on someone a few times now.

It's a living, he supposes.

\--

Every bounty hunter swarms out of the woodwork to try their hand at finding Nathaniel Wesninski. Andrew's one of the first to be invited to the castle, and the amount of money being offered by the Moriyamas is unprecented, as is the competition. The more money that's offered, the more likely the hunt is to be dangerous, and given Andrew's lacklustre enthusiasm for his own life, he'd usually be signing right up. And Andrew doesn't know what's so special about this Nathaniel, but he does know that having this many people crowding around his turf makes the entire thing impossible. There's an oversaturation of hunters, and that means that Nathaniel will either be found in a day flat, or never at all. It's not worth his time.

These days, he mostly takes on exclusive contracts, where he can work on his own terms, take as much time and do as much research as he needs. He's well known enough that work flows his way steadily, and he can pick and choose which ones he wants to take. When he leaves the castle, Andrew has no intention of doing anything for the Moriyamas, and heads further south instead.

He's been on the road for a while now, with no particular destination in mind. He does own a house, several actually if he counts the safehouses, but he doesn't spend much time in them. There's nothing in them for him. The news in the hunter world has been filled with nothing but this Nathaniel boy for weeks, and it seems like all other contracts have disappeared in the wake of such important news. He wouldn't put it past the Moriyamas to make sure that no other sanctioned hunts were allowed until he's been found, so as to not split the resources.

So he's here, taking the opportunity to do some research on spells that might be useful to know. There's a university in East Palmetto, which means that there's a library and even though witchcraft is outlawed, there's a certain amount of leniency allowed for academic texts. He has to scour the hidden corners obliquely labelled, but it's a few weeks after Midwinter and he doesn't have anything better to do right now. It's been long enough after the festivities that people are starting to forget the good cheer of that season but the days still cold enough that the sconces of this particular library are welcome to a hunter who already spends enough time tracking through dirt and mud.

Which means that when he's the one to find Nathaniel, it's entirely by accident.

He's taking a shortcut through the back alleyways – nothing that lurks here is more dangerous than him – when he sees the heaving body. The red hair under dim torchlight catches his eye immediately and he ambles over to look down at Nathaniel Wesninski on the ground. He looks like he's gone three rounds with some of Andrew's other 'colleagues' already.

"What's a little runt like you doing in the East Side?" Andrew's halfway between impressed and depressed that this mess of a human being has apparently evaded the King for so long. Distantly, in the back of Andrew's mind, he notes that Riko Moriyama hadn't said anything about Nathaniel being attractive when he was ordering them all to cut his head off. He's a mass of gangly limbs hidden under swathes of dirty clothing, and honestly, if Andrew had been on the run that red hair would have been the first thing to go.

Nathaniel looks unimpressed and Andrew gets a glimpse of more grit than he'd assumed at first. "Fuck you. What do you want?"

Andrew hums in delight. He's still no match for Andrew, of course, who could probably dispatch him with a single quick thrust of the cane-sword he's idly dangling between two fingers, but he's got spirit. That's much rarer.

He watches with more patience than he normally has as Nathaniel drags himself upright. He can feel the drag of magic over his skin, slow and sticky like blood. It pulses weakly, as if distracted or drained. "I asked you a question, little bird," he says, rolling his wrist so that his cane is raised into the air. He jabs it quickly, once, twice, into the muscle of Nathaniel's shoulder where his magic mark is, just in case it wasn't clear that Andrew already knows who he is. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know," says Nathaniel with a flinch and a grin that bares too many teeth, "Thought I'd take a walk. I have nightmares."

Andrew snorts, amused despite himself. This is it – this is what he's been looking for, ever since he first started hunting. A challenge.

There's a tell-tale second of stillness as he prepares to pounce, and he's good, Andrew will give him that. Darkness seeps across his vision, like spilled ink on a wet surface, and it's only from years of hunting that he just lets it – darkness is just the absence of light, and he knows full well how to fight in the dark.

He sweeps Nathaniel's legs back out from under him and follows the sound of impact on the ground with a foot, pressing his chest into the ground. He feels a heaving ribcage under him for a moment before Nathaniel cries out, a choked sound of pain that escapes him.

Andrew's vision clears, and Andrew feels the flit of magic brush against his cheek, like the flutter of a bird's wings.

He doesn't know why he does it. Maybe it's because Andrew is a hunter, not a butcher, and this doesn't count as a real fight. Maybe it's because the only spell Nathaniel's attempted against him is simple darkness. Maybe it's the amount of interest the Moriyamas have in him. Or maybe it's because, despite himself, he's intrigued.

In any case, he pulls his foot back and leans down. He can see it then; real blood, seeping as slowly as his magic, staining through his already stained clothes. Andrew peels the cloak away, and there's enough flow that blood spills across his abs, congealing on the ground where his back meets the stone.

"Just get it over with." Nathaniel forces out.

"If I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it already," says Andrew mildly, letting the fabric drop so that it smacks wetly back against his stomach.

"What do you want from me?"

Andrew ignores him. Nothing, he doesn't want anything from him. That's the way this works. Andrew doesn't work on favours and IOUs. He gets one arm over his shoulder and heaves, bringing Nathaniel onto his feet. He's only a little taller than Andrew, so it actually works quite well.

"Where are you taking me?" Nathaniel's feet scrabble and drag on the cobblestones, catching and throwing Andrew's balance off and Andrew presses two fingers to where the wound is and presses, just hard enough to evoke a hiss out of Nathaniel.

"Thought you might not want to wake up dead tomorrow morning."

"What's it to you?"

Andrew shrugs even under the weight of Nathaniel's arm. "Nothing."

They sink into a silence for a moment, and Andrew feels the moment Nathaniel stops fighting, however momentarily. He shifts, settles the weight and starts walking towards where he's staying. There's something in the air too, like a small amount of pressure easing off – so subtle that Andrew didn't even notice it was there until it goes away, as Nathaniel's magic retreats inside himself to focus on his injuries. He's powerful, Andrew will give him that.

They make their way slowly back towards the slum on the outskirts of town, Andrew keeping to the alleyways and Nathaniel pressing down on his side to staunch the blood.

Renee is an acquaintance from a way back. She doesn't have to live here in this part of town, he knows – she could make a perfectly respectable living as a herbalist in the merchant's quarters – but this is something of a vocation for her. Andrew doesn't even pretend to look the other way when she does magic to heal Nathaniel. He doesn't have anything personal against witches, he just gets paid handsomely for it.

Nathaniel is curious about Renee, so obviously so that Andrew wonders how this man made it so far with a complete inability to disguise his emotions.

Andrew isn't a witch, not really. He had the ability as a child, he thinks, but there's something that stopped it from developing. He doesn't know what it is - though he certainly has his suspicions - but it does mean that he's able to sense a certain amount of power. Nathaniel's almost depleted, but it's like there's a deep well of potential inside him and if Andrew were to drop a metaphorical stone down that well to see how far down it went... well, he'd probably still be waiting to hear it clink at the bottom.

"This is surprising," says Renee once Nathaniel is unconscious, his side wrapped up and the worst of the dried blood wiped off his body.

"Is it?" asks Andrew, curious.

"Yes," says Renee simply. She drops a hand on his shoulder, a gentle invitation to sit down on the other bed in the room. "But not unlike you."

Andrew sleeps upright on the bed, his knives out and his back against the wall, but Nathaniel stays down the whole night. He's woken up once, by a high pitched gasps muffled against the pillow, and Andrew's eyes snap open. There's a lantern by Nathaniel's bedside, not completely shuttered, and he can see that his eyes are still shut. A nightmare then. Looks like he hadn't been lying about those.

The rest of the night is uneventful, and Nathaniel's still down when Andrew wakes the next morning. He doesn't make a habit of being up early, but he takes the morning to restock on things he needs for an extended period of travel. He buys more food rations than realistically needed for him to get to the next town over, as well as a new overcoat that's too big for him but looks like it would fit someone slightly taller. He buys a second bedroll.

He assumes Renee will take care of Nathaniel for the day, checking in on him and feeding him herbs to help him regenerate the flickers of his magic exhaustion, so when he gets back and they're not in the main room, Andrew is... oddly disappointed. He examines the feeling within him; he tries very hard to not have expectations of people anymore to avoid this exact situation. He didn't even know he had been expecting Nathaniel to still be here - it makes complete sense that he would bolt the moment he saw his injuries seen to and Andrew was out of the picture. It's even the most logical thing to do, since Andrew's technically after his head, and Andrew would normally pride himself on being a logical man.

It's not until that he drops his day's purchases on the floor that he thinks to reach out with his other senses, the ones a remnant of a young boy with a different fate than himself, that he realises that Nathaniel is still here, just in the cellar of the house. He looks down from the top of the stairs. He's never been down there before, and while he's not normally squeamish about turning up in places he's not invited, Renee is a special case.

So he just stands there for a while, and Nathaniel and Renee both turn up after a few minutes, Nathaniel ruffling his hand through his hair self-consciously. It's been cut and dyed into a more inconspicuous dark brown. The scruff that was part dirt and part facial hair has been shaved off, he's clearly washed himself down, and he's wearing different clothes. They're still not extravagant, but they are clean and suitable for an ordinary townsperson.

There's still a sunkenness to his entire face, as if he's body is sucking energy from the parts of itself that can expend it to sustain the rest of it, but there's the ghost of a grin that reminds Andrew of the attitude from last night.

"I'm heading west," says Andrew, when Nathaniel sees him. He pauses, and looks Andrew over. He eyes flicker to where the bags and packages have been dropped.

"And?"

"And nothing," says Andrew, unwilling to go as far as an actual invite for Nathaniel to join him. It would be ridiculous; his reputation would be in tatters and there would be a constant target on his back.

And yet... and yet when the next day dawns and Andrew is done with the stretches for his stiff knee, he stands and Nathaniel stands with him, and they set out together, silently, padding through the streets of East Palmetto before the town is awake enough to spot them.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr](http://defractum.tumblr.com)!


End file.
